indigenous films

The story of Canadian Lt. Gen.

When a young woman with a startling resemblance to John Andrew's wife Miranda appears days before her funeral, John Andrew MacGinnis begins an odyssey towards understanding. His son Donald is now Dawn, home to mourn her mother and repair the estrangement with her Dad. An ancient tractor becomes a focus for the mechanically-minded Dawn, but John Andrew's long-simmering resentments about the tractor heighten family tensions. As they restore the family tractor Dawn and her Dad cautiously rebuild their relationship and come to understand the mechanics of the heart.

In a town where half the men die down the coalpit, Margaret MacNeil is quite happy being single. Until she meets Neil Currie, a charming and sincere bagpipe-playing, Gaelic-speaking dishwasher. But no matter what you do, you can't avoid the spectre of the pit forever.

For over 130 years till 1996, more than 100,000 of Canada's First Nations children were legally required to attend government-funded schools run by various Christian faiths. There were 80 of these 'residential schools' across the country. Most children were sent to faraway schools that separated them from their families and traditional land. These children endured brutality, physical hardship, mental degradation, and the complete erasure of their culture. The schools were part of a wider program of assimilation designed to integrate the native population into 'Canadian society.' These schools were established with the express purpose 'To kill the Indian in the child.' Told through their own voices, 'We Were Children' is the shocking true story of two such children: Glen Anaquod and Lyna Hart.

Based on true events, Tracey Deer's debut feature chronicles the 78-day standoff between two Mohawk communities and government forces in 1990 in Quebec.

Story of desolation as two friends travel from Nova Scotia to Toronto in hope of finding a better life. Drifting from job to job: bottling plant, car wash, bowling alley, newspaper delivery, and in between enjoying the night life of the big city. Their previous life is looking better all the time. This movie is a time capsule of Toronto's Yonge Street - record stores (defunct A&A's), bars, and old neighbourhood side streets.

Chronicles 7-weeks in the lives of 12 emotionally disturbed children and their therapist's experimental method of treatment at the Toronto-area Warrendale facility.

An Inuk filmmaker takes a close look at the central role of seal hunting in the lives of the Inuit, the importance of the revenue they earn from sales of seal skins, and the negative impact that international campaigns against the seal hunt have had on their lives.

The story of how the radical Huey P. Newton developed the Black Panther Party based on his 10-point program for social reform.

Scarborough is the film adaptation of the award-winning novel by Catherine Hernandez. Over the course of a school year, 3 kids in a low-income neighbourhood find community and friendship at a drop-in reading program.

Set on the Kidabanesee reserve in Northern Ontario, Silas Crow is a young man confused about his direction in life; he wants to take an automobile mechanic's course in college, but is uncertain whether he should apply. His general confusion with life is most readily evident in his appearance. He wears an old, ratty black hat resembling a fedora, as well as a long, black trenchcoat. Frank Fencepost is Crow's best friend, and Sadie Maracle is his girlfriend. Events are set in motion when a young girl from the reserve is murdered by Clarence Gaskilll, a white man who gets off with a light sentence, prompting the community to demand vengeance.

A gentle and usually mellow young man, who sometimes knows things before they happen and gets vibes of premonition, tell us his story: how he met Michelle in Iowa in 1971, how he got the name Fuckhead, how she introduced him to heroin and their falling in love, his thieving, his hospital work and their time in Chicago when she gets pregnant, detox, going to Phoenix to live, AA meetings and a dance, working at a care center where he learns to touch the residents, and modifying his daily schedule so that he passes a neighboring Mennonite household at the right time to hear the wife sing Gospel songs in the shower. Slowly, very slowly, FH lets his gifts emerge.

Ava's life is dictated by rules. Coming of age in Iran, she faces pressure to conform to the expectations of her parents, her school, and her friends. When Ava learns that her parents were once flagrant rule breakers themselves, she begins to rebel against the very foundations of her society. AVA masterfully demonstrates how a culture of authority can force denial and detachment, particularly among young women during their formative yet vulnerable high school years.

When a lawyer loses an appeal to stop a logging company from clear-cutting Native American land, Arthur, an Indian militant drags him and the kidnapped logging mill manager into the forest. The lawyer's empty talk about how the company's greed should be punished is put into brutal action by Arthur, who tortures the manager in allegorical ways mimicking what loggers do to the forest.

Red Crow Mi'kmaq reservation, 1976: By government decree, every Indian child under the age of 16 must attend residential school. In the kingdom of the Crow, that meansimprisonment at St. Dymphna's. That means being at the mercy of "Popper", the sadistic Indian agent who runs the school. At 15, Aila is the weed princess of Red Crow. Hustling with her uncle Burner, she sells enough dope to pay Popper her "truancy tax", keeping her out of St. Ds. But when Aila's drug money is stolen and her father Joseph returns from prison, the precarious balance of Aila's world is destroyed. Her only options are to run or fight - and Mi'kmaq don't run.

A struggling musician sets out to find the legendary guitar maker Elmore Silk, with whom he hopes to strike a deal to make himself rich and famous.

Centuries ago, in what would become the Canadian Arctic, Atuat is promised to the malevolent Oki, son of the leader of their tribe. But Atuat loves the good-natured Atanarjuat, who ultimately finds a way to marry her. Oki's sister, Puja also fancies Atanarjuat, and when she causes strife between him and his brother Amaqjuaq, Oki seizes the opportunity to wreak a terrible revenge on Atanarjuat.